Electronic device and operation method thereof

ABSTRACT

Provided are an electronic device and an operation method thereof. The electronic device includes: a first sound receiver configured to receive a sound input while power is supplied to the first sound receiver in a standby state; a trigger word/phrase recognizer configured to recognize whether the sound input received by the first sound receiver corresponds to a trigger word or phrase; a second sound receiver configured to receive a sound input by receiving supply of power based on the trigger word or phrase being recognized by the trigger word/phrase recognizer; and a data transceiver configured to output a first sound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and a second sound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0042964, filed on Apr. 8, 2020,in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Various embodiments of the disclosure relate to an electronic device andan operation method thereof and, more particularly, to an electronicdevice for receiving and processing a speech signal to be used foraspeech recognition function, and an operation method thereof.

2. Description of Related Art

Recently, various devices that support a speech recognition functionhave been distributed. The speech recognition function may mean afunction of recognizing a user's utterance and processing data toperform a certain function based on the recognized utterance. Inaddition, devices implementing a speech recognition function combinedwith artificial intelligence may perform various functions such assearching for video/audio content, searching for living-relatedinformation, or executing a specific application. Such speechrecognition functions may be implemented in various computing devicessuch as a speaker, a TV, a smart phone, or an over the top (OTT) box.

Such a device implementing a speech recognition function has to bealways in a ready state to perform a function of recognizing a receivedutterance whenever the user's utterance is received, because ofcharacteristics of the speech recognition function. Therefore, becausesensors and speech recognition processing circuits for the speechrecognition function have to be always powered on, problems related toincreased power consumption due to the sensors and the circuits mayoccur in portable devices using batteries as a power source.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of the disclosure are to provide an electronicdevice having a module capable of processing a speech signal withreduced battery consumption, and an operation method thereof.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may belearned by practice of the presented embodiments of the disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, an electronic device mayinclude: a first sound receiver configured to receive a sound inputwhile power is supplied to the first sound receiver in a standby stateof the electronic device; a trigger word/phrase recognizer configured torecognize whether the sound input received by the first sound receivercorresponds to a trigger word or phrase; a second sound receiverconfigured to receive a sound input by receiving supply of power basedon the trigger word or phrase being recognized by the triggerword/phrase recognizer; and a data transceiver configured to output afirst sound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and asecond sound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device mayfurther include a power controller configured to control the power to besupplied to the second sound receiver based on a control signalindicating the recognizing of the trigger word or phrase being receivedfrom the trigger word/phrase recognizer.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device mayfurther include a sound signal processor configured to receive the firstsound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and the secondsound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver, and processthe first sound input signal and the second sound input signal based onthe power being supplied to the sound signal processor when the triggerword or phrase is recognized by the trigger word/phrase recognizer.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the sound signal processormay be further configured to generate a stereo signal by mixing thefirst sound input signal with the second sound input signal.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the power controller maybe further configured to, based on a key input signal for requesting aspeech recognition function being received, supply the power to thesecond sound receiver, and cease power supply to the first soundreceiver, and the data transceiver may be further configured to receivethe second sound input signal from the second sound receiver operatingand output the received second sound input signal.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the power controller maybe further configured to control cease power supply to the second soundreceiver based on the speech recognition function being terminated.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device mayfurther include a flag inserting unit configured to insert, into thesecond sound input signal output in response to the key input signal, aflag for distinguishing the second sound input signal output in responseto the key input signal from the first sound input signal output inresponse to the recognizing of the trigger word or phrase.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, based on the flag, thesecond sound input signal output in response to the key input signal maybe subjected to sound processing that is different from sound processingto be performed on the first sound input signal output in response tothe recognizing of the trigger word or phrase.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device mayfurther include a switch connected to the second sound receiver, and theswitch may be configured to transmit, based on the key input signalrequesting the speech recognition function being received, the secondsound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver to the datatransceiver, or transmit, based on the recognizing of the trigger wordor phrase, the second sound input signal to the sound signal processorconfigured to process the second sound input signal with the first soundinput signal.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, an operation method of anelectronic device may include: receiving a sound input, by a first soundreceiver to which power is supplied in a standby state of the electronicdevice; recognizing whether the sound input received from the firstsound receiver corresponds to a trigger word or phrase; receiving asound input by a second sound receiver to which the power is suppliedbased on the trigger word or phrase being recognized; and outputting, bya data transceiver, a first sound input signal supplied from the firstsound receiver and a second sound input signal supplied from the secondsound receiver.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a computer readablerecording medium comprising a program executing an operation method ofan electronic device in which the operation method may include:receiving a sound input, by a first sound receiver to which power issupplied in a standby state of the electronic device; recognizingwhether the sound input received by the first sound receiver correspondsto a trigger word or phrase; receiving a sound input by a second soundreceiver to which the power is supplied based on the trigger word orphrase being recognized; and outputting, by a data transceiver, a firstsound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and a secondsound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certainembodiments of the disclosure will be more apparent from the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a reference diagram for explaining a system to which variousembodiments of the disclosure are applied;

FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of an electronic device according toan embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3A is another example block diagram of an electronic deviceaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3B is another example block diagram of an electronic deviceaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining operations of an electronic deviceaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a detailed flowchart of speech recognition function operationsin an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a detailed flowchart of speech recognition function operationsin an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates another example of an electronic device according toan embodiment of the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 illustrates another example of an electronic device according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Terms used in the specification will be briefly described, and thedisclosure will be described in detail.

General and widely used terms have been employed herein, inconsideration of functions provided in the disclosure, and may varyaccording to an intention of one of ordinary skill in the art, aprecedent, or emergence of new technologies. Additionally, in somecases, an applicant may arbitrarily select specific terms, in whichcase, the applicant will provide the meaning of the terms in thedescription of the embodiments. Accordingly, the terms used hereinshould be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with theirmeaning in the context of the relevant art and should not be interpretedin an idealized or overly formal sense.

Throughout the specification, when a portion “includes” an element,another element may be further included, rather than excluding theexistence of the other element, unless otherwise described. In addition,terms such as “ . . . unit”, “ . . . module”, or the like refer to unitsthat perform at least one function or operation, and the units may beimplemented as hardware or software or as a combination of hardware andsoftware.

Embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in such a manner that the embodiments may be easily carried outby one of skill in the art. However, the disclosure may have differentforms and should not be construed as being limited to the descriptionsset forth herein. In order to clearly describe the disclosure, portionsthat are not relevant to the description of the disclosure are omitted,and similar reference numerals are assigned to similar elementsthroughout the specification.

Throughout the disclosure, the expression “at least one of a, b or c”indicates only a, only b, only c, both a and b, both a and c, both b andc, all of a, b, and c, or variations thereof.

In embodiments of the specification, the term “user” refers to a personwho controls functions or operations of a computing device or anelectronic device using a control device, and may include a viewer, amanager, or an installer.

FIG. 1 is a reference diagram for explaining a system to which variousembodiments are applied.

Elements for a speech recognition function according to variousembodiments of the disclosure may be applied to various electronicdevices. Referring to FIG. 1 , the elements for the speech recognitionfunction according to various embodiments of the disclosure may beapplied to electronic devices, for example, a display device 10 such asa TV, a smart phone 20, an OTT box 30, a speaker 40, or a remotecontroller 50.

The speech recognition function may be applied to, for example, theremote controller 50 or the like to control the display device 10. Forexample, the user may control the display device 10 simply by startingan utterance toward the remote controller 50 or may trigger an utterancereceiving microphone to operate by pressing a microphone button 51provided in the remote controller 50.

The speech recognition function may be combined with artificialintelligence technology to provide a speech assistant service. Anartificial intelligence system is a computer system for implementinghuman-level intelligence in which a machine itself learns, makesdecisions, and obtains a higher recognition rate the more it is used.Artificial intelligence technology includes machine-learning (e.g.,deep-learning) technology that uses an algorithm forclassifying/learning features of input data by itself, and elementtechnologies for copying cognition and decision functions of the humanbrain through a machine-learning algorithm. The element technologies mayinclude at least one of language understanding technology forrecognizing human languages/characters, visual understanding technologyfor recognizing objects like human vision, inference/predictiontechnology for determining information and performing logical inferenceand prediction, knowledge representation technology for processing humanexperience information to knowledge data, or motion control technologyfor controlling autonomous driving of vehicles or the motion of robots.

In general, each speech recognition function module receives a uniquetrigger word or wake-up word, recognizes the received trigger word orwake-up word, and enters a state of listening to next utterances from auser 90. For example, the speech recognition function module may bewoken up by a trigger phrase “Hi Bixby”.

Typically, the speech recognition function module has learned torecognize its own unique trigger word or phrase used to invoke thespeech recognition function module, but the disclosure is not limitedthereto, and the speech recognition function module may have learned torecognize a plurality of trigger words or phrases.

The speech recognition function for controlling various devices by theuser's utterance may be divided into short-range speech recognition thatis triggered by a button input, and long-range speech recognition thatis triggered by a specific utterance. The short-range speech recognitionhas a limitation on interactions because the user has to hold a specificdevice, press a button on the device and then speak. That is, becausethe user who intends to use the speech recognition function may initiatethe speech recognition function only by pressing the button on theelectronic device, there is a limitation in that the user has to holdthe electronic device in order to use the speech recognition function.On the other hand, for the long-range speech recognition which istriggered by the specific utterance, the user may control the devicewithin a certain distance in a more convenient manner, that is, simplyby speaking the trigger word or phrase.

In a long-range speech recognition device according to the related art,because the user may speak anytime, power has to be supplied to themicrophone all the time in order for the speech recognition function tobe triggered. Accordingly, there is a limitation in that the device hasto be installed in a place where the power may be continuously supplied,or there is inconvenience in that, in a case of a battery-powereddevice, the battery has to be frequently charged because of its limitedusage time less than a day.

That is, in conventional long-range speech recognition, because the usermay speak the trigger word or phrase anytime, every sound has to berecorded and analyzed. For this reason, a microphone-related blockentails a current consumption all the time, and accordingly, along-range speech recognition module has to be applied to devices thatmay be stably supplied with power. In a case of a device such as a TVremote controller, because low-power technology is necessary such thatgeneral alkaline batteries (e.g., two AA or AAA batteries) endure abouta year supplying power to the device without replacement, the device isdesigned in a button-type push-to-talk scheme. In a case where thelong-range speech recognition is applied to such remote controller,because the user may speak anytime, a microphone block has to be enabledall the time. Accordingly, standby power increases, resulting in theuser's inconvenience of using batteries having a large capacity orfrequently replacing the batteries.

Embodiments disclosed in the disclosure are to provide an electronicdevice capable of performing a long-range speech recognition functionwithout constant power supply.

FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of an electronic device 100 accordingto an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the electronic device 100 may include a soundreceiver 110, a sound processor 120, a power controller 130, a datatransceiver 140, and a controller 180. At least some elements of theelectronic device 100, for example, the sound receiver 110, the soundprocessor 120, the power controller 130, or the data transceiver 140,may be electrically connected to the controller 180. In variousembodiments of the disclosure, the electronic device 100 may be referredto as a computing device or a remote control device, and may furtherinclude elements in addition to the elements illustrated in FIG. 2 orsome elements may be omitted. For example, the electronic device 100 mayfurther include a display, a memory, a speaker, etc.

The controller 180 may include a processor or the like to control thesound receiver 110, the sound processor 120, the power controller 130,the data transceiver 140, or the like.

The sound receiver 110 may include a first sound receiver 111 and asecond sound receiver 112 that receive a sound input.

The sound processor 120 is a block for processing a sound input signalreceived from the sound receiver 110 and may include the triggerword/phrase recognizer 121 and the sound signal processor 122.

The first sound receiver 111 and the second sound receiver 112 mayinclude a microphone or the like to receive or store a sound input fromthe outside. The first sound receiver 111 and the second sound receiver112 may be integrated with or separated from the electronic device 100.The sound receiver separated from the electronic device 100 may beconnected to the electronic device 100 through a wired or wirelessnetwork.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the first sound receiver111 may constantly receive power supply to detect a sound input receivedfrom the outside of the electronic device 100. In other words, the firstsound receiver 111 may maintain a state where the power is supplied toreceive the sound input, in a standby state of the electronic device100. The first sound receiver 111 may receive various audio signals, forexample, indoor noise, in addition to the user's speech. The first soundreceiver 111 may determine that a user speech is input in a case wherean intensity of the received sound has increased from an intensity of apreviously input sound by a preset value. This is because various audiosignals including the user speech are input through the sound receiverin a typical home or office environment. Because noise input in thetypical home or office environment has a constant intensity, the soundreceiver may detect that the user speech is input in a case where anintensity of a currently input sound has increased from an intensity ofa normally input sound, that is, not containing a user speech, by thepreset value. For example, in a case where the ordinarily input soundhas an intensity of 20 dB, the sound receiver may determine, as the userspeech, only a sound having an intensity equal to or greater than thesum of the intensity of the normally input sound and the preset value(e.g., 12 dB).

Alternatively, for example, the first sound receiver 111 may recordevery sound input received from the outside and determine whether therecorded sound input exceeds a preset threshold. In a case where thefirst sound receiver 111 has determined that the recorded sound inputdoes not exceed the preset threshold, the first sound receiver 111 maydetermine that the sound input is not a valid user speech but noise suchas living noise, and may not take any action. In a case where the firstsound receiver 111 has determined that the recorded sound input exceedsthe preset threshold, the first sound receiver 111 may determine thatthe sound input has valid information. In a case where the first soundreceiver 111 has determined that the recorded sound input is validsound, the first sound receiver 111 may transmit the recorded soundinput to the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 to determine whether thevalid sound corresponds to the trigger word or phrase.

In addition, in a case where the first sound receiver 111 receives, fromthe trigger word/phrase recognizer 121, a control signal indicating thatthe trigger word or phrase has been recognized, the first sound receiver111 may transmit the received sound input to the sound signal processor122 in order to perform sound signal processing on the sound input. Thatis, in a case where the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 recognizesthat the sound input corresponds to the trigger word or phrase, theelectronic device 100 may control the first sound receiver 111 totransmit the received sound input to the sound signal processor 122 inorder to perform the sound signal processing on the sound input.

Normally, the power may not be supplied to the second sound receiver112, and thus the second sound receiver 112 may remain powered off. In acase where the second sound receiver 112 receives a power control signalfrom the power controller 130, the second sound receiver 112 may bepowered on to receive a sound input and transmit the received soundinput to the sound signal processor 122. In a case where the triggerword/phrase recognizer 121 has determined that the sound inputcorresponds to the trigger word or phrase, the power controller 130 maytransmit the power control signal to the second sound receiver 112. Inthis case, that is, where the received sound input has been determinedas corresponding to the trigger word or phrase, the power may besupplied to the second sound receiver 112 such that the second soundreceiver 112 may receive the sound input, while normally, the secondsound receiver 112 may remain powered off without the power beingsupplied, and thus, power consumption may be reduced.

When the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 receives the sound inputfrom the first sound receiver 111, the trigger word/phrase recognizer121 may determine whether the received sound input corresponds to thepredefined trigger word or phrase.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the trigger word/phraserecognizer 121 may have learned to recognize one or more trigger wordsor phrases by using an acoustic model, pronunciation symbols, or thelike, and thus may recognize the trigger word or phrase. According to anembodiment of the disclosure, the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 maydetermine that a trigger word or phrase is recognized, in a case where arecognition score for the trigger word or phrase exceeds a thresholdvalue, whereas the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 may determine thatthe trigger word or phrase is not recognized, in a case where therecognition score for the trigger word or phrase does not exceed thethreshold value.

In a case where the received sound input has been determined as notcorresponding to the predefined trigger word or phrase, the triggerword/phrase recognizer 121 may not perform any further action. In a casewhere the received sound input has been determined as corresponding tothe predefined trigger word or phrase, the trigger word/phraserecognizer 121 may transmit the control signal indicating that thetrigger word or phrase has been recognized, to the power controller 130and the first sound receiver 111 such that subsequent operations may beperformed after recognizing the trigger word or phrase.

Normally, that is, in the standby state of the electronic device 100,the power may not be supplied to the sound signal processor 122, andthus the sound signal processor 122 may remain powered off. In a casewhere the sound signal processor 122 receives a power control signalfrom the power controller 130, the sound signal processor 122 may bepowered on, to receive a first sound input from the first sound receiver111, and a second sound input from the second sound receiver 112, mixthe first sound input signal with the second sound input signal, andtransmit a mixed signal to the data transceiver 140. The sound signalprocessor 122 may generate a stereo signal by mixing the first soundinput signal with the second sound input signal. In addition, as thesound signal processor 122 may receive a sound input signal forlong-range speech recognition, which is highly likely to contain noise,the sound signal processor 122 may perform denoising or the like. In acase where the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 has determined thatthe sound input corresponds to the trigger word or phrase, the powercontroller 130 may transmit the power control signal to the sound signalprocessor 122. In a case where the received sound input has beendetermined as corresponding to the trigger word or phrase, the power maybe supplied to the sound signal processor 122 such that the sound signalprocessor 122 may perform sound processing on the received sound input,while normally, the sound signal processor 122 may remain powered off,and thus, the power consumption may be reduced.

In a case where the power controller 130 receives a trigger word/phraserecognition signal from the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121, thepower controller 130 may transmit the power control signal to the secondsound receiver 112 and the sound signal processor 122 to control thepower to be supplied to the second sound receiver 112 and the soundsignal processor 122. As the power control signal is transmitted, thepower is supplied to the corresponding elements, and thus the elementsmay be powered on and enabled.

The data transceiver 140 is a block for transmitting received data, andmay include a data receiver 141 and a data transmitter 142. The datatransceiver 140 may transmit and receive data to and from the outsideusing a wireless Internet module or a short-range communication module.For example, the wireless Internet module refers to a module forwireless Internet connection, and some examples of the wireless Internettechnology are Wireless LAN (WLAN, Wi-Fi), wireless broadband (Wibro),worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Wimax), and high-speeddownlink packet access (HSDPA). The short-range communication module isfor communicating within a short distance range. Some examples of theshort-range communication technology are Bluetooth, radio frequencyidentification (RFID), infrared data association (IrDA), ultra wideband(UWB), and ZigBee.

The data receiver 141 may receive signal-processed data from the soundsignal processor 122, and may transmit the signal-processed data to thedata transmitter 142.

The data transmitter 142 may transmit the data received from the datareceiver 141 to an external device. For example, the data transmitter142 may transmit the received data to the external device through acommunication interface.

Depending on the type of an input speech, voice recognition may bedivided into isolated word recognition which recognizes an utteredspeech by each word, continuous speech recognition which recognizescontinuous words, continuous sentences, and conversational speech, andkeyword spotting which is a recognition form between the isolated wordrecognition and the continuous speech recognition and detects andrecognizes a predefined keyword. In a case where a user speech has beeninput, a speech section may be identified by detecting a start point andan end point of an utterance of the user in the input sound signal. Thespeech section may be identified by calculating energy of the inputsound signal, classifying an energy level of the sound signal accordingto the calculated energy, and performing dynamic programming. Inaddition, phoneme data may be generated by detecting a phoneme, which isthe smallest unit of speech sound, from the sound signal within theidentified speech section, based on an acoustic model. Then, textinformation may be generated by applying a hidden Markov model (HMM) tothe generated phoneme data. One or more modules for performing suchspeech recognition operations may be included in the electronic device100. In this case, a speech recognition module may receive a signaloutput from the sound processor 120 and perform speech recognitionprocessing. According to another embodiment of the disclosure, theelectronic device 100 may merely obtain sound data to be used for thespeech recognition and transmit the obtained sound data to anotherdevice through the communication interface or the like. For example, ina case of the electronic device 100 implemented as a remote controller,the data transmitter 142 of the electronic device 100 may transmit thereceived data to a display device such as a television, by using variouscommunication schemes.

According to the electronic device 100 illustrated in FIG. 2 , thesecond sound receiver 112 and the sound signal processor 122 may benormally powered off without power supply, and may be supplied with thepower to perform operations when the trigger word or phrase has beenrecognized by the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121. Accordingly,because the second sound receiver 112 and the sound signal processor 122may be supplied with the power and operate when their operations arerequired, the power consumption may be reduced as the power is notnecessarily supplied all the time.

The second sound receiver 112 and the sound signal processor 122 mayoperate when there is data to be processed after receiving the soundinput, and thus, the second sound receiver 112 and the sound signalprocessor 122 may transition to a power-off state when there is no moresound input received even after the second sound receiver 112 is poweredon. For example, the second sound receiver 112 may transition to thepower-off state in a case where a time for which a new sound input isnot received from the outside exceeds a predefined threshold value. Inaddition, for example, the sound signal processor 122 may transition tothe power-off state in a case where a time for which a new sound inputsignal is not received from the first sound receiver or the second soundreceiver, that is, there is no more data to be processed, exceeds apredefined threshold value.

According to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 , the electronicdevice 100 in the standby state may secure its battery life by supplyingthe power to a single sound receiver, for example, the first soundreceiver 111, to recognize the trigger word or phrase in the sound inputreceived from the first sound receiver rather than supplying the powerto both of the first and second sound receivers 111 and 112.

In addition, in a case where the trigger word or phrase has beenrecognized in the sound input received from the first sound receiver111, the power may be supplied to the second sound receiver 112 suchthat the sound input received from the second sound receiver 112 and thefirst sound input signal received from the first sound receiver 111 maybe used for the sound processing, and thus signals for the long-rangespeech recognition may be efficiently collected.

Furthermore, by separating power lines to the trigger word/phraserecognizer121 and to the sound signal processor 122 from each other, thepower may be supplied to the sound signal processor 122 only when theoperations of the sound signal processor 122 are actually required, andthus the power consumption may be optimized.

FIG. 3A is another example block diagram of an electronic device 100 aaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

In the electronic device 100 a illustrated in FIG. 3A, a configurationin which the speech recognition function is performed by receiving a keyinput signal may be further included. As described above, in thelong-range speech recognition, the user may trigger the electronicdevice to perform the speech recognition function by making an utterancewhereas, in the short-distance speech recognition, the user may triggerthe electronic device to perform the speech recognition function bypressing a button provided in the electronic device 100.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the electronic device 100 a may further include aswitch 150 and a user input unit 160, in addition to the sound receiver110, the sound processor 120, the power controller 130, and the datatransceiver 140 illustrated in FIG. 2 .

Elements corresponding to the same reference numerals in FIGS. 2 and 3Amay perform substantially the same functions. However, the electronicdevice 100 a in FIG. 3A may further include the switch 150 for a flowfor the speech recognition function triggered by button pressing.

The user input unit 160 may receive a user input for controlling theelectronic device 100 a. For example, the user input unit 160 mayinclude one or more physical buttons arranged outside the electronicdevice 100 a or a touch input interface. In a case where the user inputunit 160 has received a user input signal for requesting the speechrecognition function, the user input unit 160 may transmit a controlsignal corresponding to the user input signal, to the switch 150 and thepower controller 130. The control signal corresponding to the user inputsignal for requesting the speech recognition function may be simplyreferred to as a “key input signal”.

The switch 150 may be triggered by the key input signal. For example,the switch 150 may receive the control signal according to the key inputsignal generated as a speech recognition function button provided in theelectronic device 100 a is pressed. In a case where the switch 150 hasreceived the control signal according to the key input signal, theswitch 150 may transmit the sound input signal received from the secondsound receiver 112, directly to the data receiver 141. That is, thereception of the key input signal may mean that the user has triggeredthe speech recognition function by holding the electronic device 100 aand pressing the button included in the electronic device 100 a, andthus that the electronic device 100 a is in close proximity to the user.Accordingly, the data for the speech recognition may be sufficientlycollected by receiving the sound input through only the second soundreceiver 112, rather than receiving the sound input through both of thefirst and second sound receivers 111 and 112 in the sound receiver 110,and thus the switch 150 may operate to transmit the second sound inputsignal received from the second sound receiver 112 directly to the datareceiver 141.

In a case where the power controller 130 has received the control signalaccording to the key input signal, the power controller 130 may transmitthe power control signal for supplying the power to the second soundreceiver 112. Accordingly, the second sound receiver 112 may be suppliedwith the power and thus powered on after receiving the power controlsignal, and may then receive the sound input, and transmit the receivedsound input to the switch 150.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, because an operation ofrecognizing the trigger word or phrase is not necessary while the speechrecognition function (short-range speech recognition function) triggeredby receiving the key input signal is being performed, upon initiation ofthe short-range speech recognition function by reception of the keyinput signal, the power controller 130 may cease the power supply to thefirst sound receiver 111, and may control the power to be supplied tothe first sound receiver 111 after the short-range speech recognitionfunction is terminated.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the power controller 130may control, in a normal use state, the first sound receiver 111 to besupplied with the power for the long-range speech recognition, whichperforms the speech recognition function on the user's utterance, andmay control the second sound receiver 112 to be supplied with the powerfor the sound processing when the trigger word or phrase has beenrecognized.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the power controller 130may supply the power to the first sound receiver 111 for the long-rangespeech recognition in the normal use state as described above, but in acase where the key input signal has been received and the short-rangespeech recognition may be performed with the sound input received by thesecond sound receiver 112, the power controller 130 may cease the powersupply to the first sound receiver 111, and thus the power consumptionmay be further reduced. In a case where a short-range speech recognitionoperation by the second sound receiver 112 is terminated, the powercontroller 130 may resume the power supply to the first sound receiver111 to prepare for the long-range speech recognition and cease the powersupply to the second sound receiver 112.

In a case of performing the long-range speech recognition function inthe example of FIG. 3A, the same operations as described in FIG. 2 maybe performed. However, in this case, the switch 150 may transmit thesecond sound input received by the second sound receiver 112 to thesound signal processor 122 of the sound processor 120, rather thantransmitting the second sound input directly to the data receiver 141.

That is, in a case of performing the short-range speech recognitionfunction by the switch 150, the switch 150 may transmit the second soundinput signal received by the second sound receiver 112 directly to thedata receiver 141 whereas, in a case of performing the long-range speechrecognition function, the switch 150 may transmit the second sound inputsignal received by the second sound receiver 112 to the sound signalprocessor 122 to perform a mixing operation with the first sound inputsignal.

FIG. 3B is another example block diagram of an electronic device 100 baccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

In the electronic device 100 b illustrated in FIG. 3B, a configurationfor performing the speech recognition function by receiving the keyinput signal may be further included. The electronic device 100 aillustrated in FIG. 3A includes the switch 150 for receiving the soundinput by using one of the sound receivers 111 and 112 included in thesound receiver 120 and transmitting the sound input directly to the datareceiver 141, to perform the short-range speech recognition functionwhereas the electronic device 100 b illustrated in FIG. 3B may performthe sound signal processing by using both of the first and second soundreceivers 111 and 112 in the sound receiver 110, to perform theshort-range speech recognition function.

Accordingly, the control signal according to the key input signal may betransmitted to the power controller 130 and the first sound receiver111.

In a case where the first sound receiver 111 has received the controlsignal according to the key input signal, the first sound receiver 111may transmit the first sound input signal received by the first soundreceiver 111, to the sound signal processor 122.

In a case where the control signal according to the key input signal hasbeen received, the power controller 130 may transmit the power controlsignal for supplying the power to the second sound receiver 112 and thesound signal processor 122. Accordingly, the second sound receiver 112may be powered on after receiving the power control signal, then receivethe second sound input, and transmit the received second sound input tothe sound signal processor 122. The sound signal processor 122 may bealso powered on after receiving the power control signal, then receivethe first sound input signal from the first sound receiver 111 and thesecond sound input signal from the second sound receiver 112, mix thefirst sound input signal with the second sound input signal, and outputthe mixed signal to the data transceiver 140.

That is, although the speech recognition function has been initiated bypressing the button in the electronic device 100 b, a distance betweenthe user and the electronic device 100 b may be increased after theinitiation of the speech recognition function, and thus the electronicdevice 100 b may be implemented to operate by receiving the sound inputthrough both the first sound receiver 111 and the second sound receiver112, not only one sound receiver.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining operations of an electronic deviceaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 4 , in operation 410, the electronic device 100 mayrecognize whether the sound input received from the first sound receiver111 corresponds to the trigger word or phrase.

For example, the electronic device 100 may continuously record soundsreceived from the outside by using a microphone or the like, and when itis has determined that the recorded sound has a valid sound, theelectronic device 100 may determine whether the recorded soundcorresponds to the trigger word or phrase. The electronic device 100 maycompare the recorded sound with a predefined or pre-stored trigger wordor phrase, recognize the recorded sound as containing the trigger wordor phrase in a case of exceeding a reference threshold for determiningthat the recorded sound corresponds to the trigger word or phrase, andrecognize the recorded sound as not containing the trigger word orphrase in a case of not exceeding the reference threshold.

In operation 420, as the trigger word or phrase has been recognized, theelectronic device 100 may output the power control signal to supply thepower to the second sound receiver 112 and the sound signal processor122. As described above, in a case where the second sound receiver 112has received the power control signal, the second sound receiver 122 maybe supplied with the power and then powered on, and may receive thesound input from the outside and transmit the received sound inputsignal to the sound signal processor 122. In a case where the soundsignal processor 122 has received the power control signal, the soundsignal processor 122 may be supplied with the power and then powered on,and may process the received sound input signal.

In operation 430, the electronic device 100 may receive the first soundinput signal from the first sound receiver 111 and the second soundinput signal from the second sound receiver 112, generate a stereo soundby mixing the first sound input signal with the second sound inputsignal, and output the generated stereo sound, by using the sound signalprocessor 122 to which the power is being supplied.

FIG. 5 is a detailed flowchart of speech recognition function operationsin an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5 , in operation 501, the first sound receiver 111 maycontinuously receive sound inputs from the outside. For example, thefirst sound receiver 111 may continuously store the sound inputsreceived from the outside.

In operation 502, the first sound receiver 111 may determine whether thestored sound input has valid sound information. For example, the firstsound receiver 111 may determine whether a certain feature of the storedsound input exceeds a preset threshold value in order to determinewhether the stored sound input has the valid sound information or only adaily noise signal. In a case where the first sound receiver 111 hasdetermined that the certain feature of the stored sound input does notexceed the preset threshold value, that is, there is no specific actionrequired, the first sound receiver 111 may not perform a specificoperation.

In operation 503, in a case where the first sound receiver 111 hasdetermined that the certain feature of the stored sound input exceedsthe preset threshold value, the first sound receiver 111 may transmitthe stored sound input to the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 todetermine whether the sound input corresponds to the trigger word orphrase.

In operation 504, the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 that hasreceived the input sound from the first sound receiver 111 may determinewhether the received input sound corresponds to the trigger word orphrase.

In operation 505, in a case where the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121has determined that the trigger word or phrase is recognized from theinput sound, the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 may transmit atrigger word recognition signal indicating that the trigger word orphrase has been recognized to the first sound receiver 111.

In operation 506, the trigger word/phrase recognizer 121 may transmit atrigger word recognition signal to the power controller 130.

The power controller 130, which has received the trigger wordrecognition signal, may transmit the power control signal to the soundsignal processor 122 in operation 507, and may transmit the powercontrol signal to the second sound receiver 112 in operation 508. Thesound signal processor 122 may normally remain powered off without thepower being supplied, and may be supplied with the power and thuspowered on upon the reception of the power control signal from the powercontroller 130, and enter a ready state to operate. The second soundreceiver 112 may also normally remain powered off state because it isnot normally powered on without the power being supplied, and may besupplied with the power and thus powered on upon the reception of thepower control signal from the power controller 130, and enter the readystate to operate.

In operation 509, the second sound receiver 112 to which the power isbeing supplied may receive the sound input from the outside and transmitthe received sound input signal to the sound signal processor 122. Thatis, only the first sound receiver 111 may operate to monitor the soundinputs until the sound input including the trigger word or phrase isreceived and the electronic device 100 recognizes the trigger word orphrase, and the second sound receiver 112 may be powered on to operateafter the trigger word or phrase is recognized, accordingly, both thefirst sound receiver 111 and the second sound receiver 112 may receivethe sound input and transmit the sound input to the sound processor 120.

In operation 510, the first sound receiver 111 that has received thetrigger word recognition signal in operation 505 may transmit the soundinput signal to the sound signal processor 122. That is, before thetrigger word or phrase is recognized, the first sound receiver 111 maytransmit the sound input signal to the trigger word/phrase recognizer121 in order to determine whether the trigger word or phrase is includedin the sound input signal, but after the trigger word or phrase isrecognized, the first sound receiver 111 may transmit the sound inputsignal to the sound signal processor 122 in order to perform the soundprocessing on the received sound input signal.

In operation 511, the sound signal processor 122 may perform the soundsignal processing by mixing the first sound input signal received fromthe first sound receiver 111 with the second sound input signal receivedfrom the second sound receiver 112.

In operation 512, the sound signal processor 122 may transmit aprocessed sound signal to the data transceiver 140.

FIG. 6 is a detailed flowchart of speech recognition function operationsin an electronic device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6 , in operation 601, the user input unit 160 mayreceive a user input for requesting the speech recognition function.Examples of the user input for requesting the speech recognitionfunction may include a signal indicating that the speech recognitionfunction button has been pressed by the user.

In operation 602, the user input unit 160 may transmit, to the powercontroller 130, a key input signal generated in response to the userinput for requesting the speech recognition function.

In operation 603, the power controller 130 may transmit the powercontrol signal to the second sound receiver 112 for the speechrecognition function according to the key input, upon the reception ofthe key input signal.

In operation 604, the speech recognition function may be initiated uponthe reception of the key input signal, and because the first soundreceiver 111, which is being supplied with the power for the long-rangespeech recognition, may not need to operate while the second soundreceiver 112 is operating to perform the speech recognition functionaccording to the key input, the power controller 130 may transmit acontrol signal for ceasing the power supply to the first sound receiver111. In operation 605, the second sound receiver 112, which normallyremains powered off without the power being supplied, may be suppliedwith the power and thus powered on by the power control signal receivedfrom the power controller 130, to receive the input sound.

In operation 606, the second sound receiver 112 may transmit thereceived input sound to the data transceiver 140.

In a case where the second sound receiver 112 no longer receives a soundinput for performing the speech recognition function according to thekey input, the power controller 130 may transmit the power controlsignal for supplying the power to the first sound receiver 111 and maytransmit a power control signal for ceasing the power supply to thesecond sound receiver 112, to enable the electronic device 100 to enterthe standby state.

FIG. 7 illustrates another example of an electronic device according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7 , a system to which an electronic device 100 caccording to another embodiment of the disclosure is applied may includea display device 10, the electronic device 100 c, and a network 70through which the display device 10 communicates with the electronicdevice 100 c.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device 100c may include the sound receiver 110, the trigger word/phrase recognizer121, the power controller 130, the data transceiver 140, the user inputunit 160, and the controller 180. At least some elements of theelectronic device 100 c, for example, the sound receiver 110, thetrigger word/phrase recognizer 121, the power controller 130, the datatransceiver 140, and the user input unit 160 may be electricallyconnected to the controller 180.

The electronic device 100 c of FIG. 7 is similar to the electronicdevice 100 of FIG. 2 , but is different from the electronic device 100of FIG. 2 in that the electronic device 100 c does not include the soundsignal processor 122.

In the electronic device 100 of FIG. 2 , the sound signal processor 122mixes the first sound input signal from the first sound receiver 111with the second sound input signal from the second sound receiver 112,or performs filtering or the like and outputs the mixed signals to theoutside. However, in the electronic device 100 c of FIG. 7 , the soundsignal processor is not included in the electronic device 100 c, and thedisplay device 10 may include a sound signal processing module 16 thatserves as the sound signal processor. Accordingly, the electronic device100 c of FIG. 7 may transmit the received first sound input signal andsecond sound input signal to the display device 10 without performingthe sound signal processing, and then the display device 10 may performmixing or filtering on the received first sound input signal and secondsound input signal.

The elements of the electronic device 100 c of FIG. 7 perform the samefunctions as those of the electronic device 100 c referred to by thesame reference numerals in FIG. 2 , thus redundant descriptions will beomitted, and operations different from those of the elements of theelectronic device 100 of FIG. 2 will be described.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the trigger word/phraserecognizer 121, which has received the sound input signal from the firstsound receiver 111 to which the power is supplied in the standby state,may recognize whether the received sound input signal corresponds to thetrigger word or phrase, and may transmit the trigger word recognitionsignal to the power controller 130 in a case where the received soundinput signal has been determined as corresponding to the trigger word orphrase. The power controller 130 that has received the trigger wordrecognition signal, may control the power to be supplied to the secondsound receiver 112 such that the second sound receiver 112 may receivethe sound input. The first sound input signal received by the firstsound receiver 111 and the second sound input signal received by thesecond sound receiver 112 may be transmitted directly to the datatransceiver 140 without the sound signal processing, and the datatransceiver 140 may transmit the received first sound input signal andsecond sound input signal to the display device 10 through the network70.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the power controller 130that has received the key input signal from the user input unit 160 maycontrol the power to be supplied to the second sound receiver 112 suchthat the second sound receiver 112 may receive the sound input. Thesecond sound input signal received by the second sound receiver 112 maybe transmitted directly to the data transceiver 140, and the datatransceiver 140 may transmit the received second sound input signal tothe display device 10.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, when the power controller130 that has received the key input signal from the user input unit 160controls the power to be supplied to the second sound receiver 112, thepower controller 130 may also control the power supply to the firstsound receiver 111 to be ceased. As described above, in a case whereonly the second sound input signal from the second sound receiver 112 istransmitted to the display device 10 according to the key input signal,the power supply to the first sound receiver 112 may be ceased, and thusthe power consumption may be further reduced. According to an embodimentof the disclosure, when speech reception according to the key inputsignal is terminated, that is, when a sound input is no longer receivedby the second sound receiver 112, the power controller 130 may controlthe power supply to the second sound receiver 112 to be ceased, and mayresume the power supply to the first sound receiver 111 in order for theelectronic device 100 c to enter the standby state.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the display device 10 mayinclude a display 11, a communication interface 12, a processor 13, amemory 14, and a speech recognition module 15. At least some elements ofthe display device 10, for example, the display 11, the communicationinterface 12, the memory 14, and the speech recognition module 15 may beelectrically connected to the processor 13. In various embodiments ofthe disclosure, the display device 10 may be referred to as anelectronic device or a computing device. The display device 10 mayfurther include elements in addition to the elements illustrated in FIG.7 , or some elements may be omitted.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the display 11 may displayan image, a video, and/or an execution screen of an application.

The communication interface 12 according to an embodiment of thedisclosure may establish wired or wireless communication with theelectronic device 100 c according to a specified protocol. Thecommunication interface 12 may receive the sound input signal to be usedfor the speech recognition from the electronic device 100 c based on thewired or wireless communication.

The communication interface 12 may include one or more modules thatenable wireless communication between the display device 10 and awireless communication system or between the display device 10 and anetwork in which another electronic device is located. For example, thecommunication interface 12 may include a broadcast receiving module, amobile communication module, a wireless Internet module, and ashort-range communication module. The communication interface 12 may bereferred to as a transceiver.

The broadcast receiving module may receive a broadcast signal and/orbroadcast-related information from an external broadcast managementserver through a broadcast channel. The mobile communication module maytransmit and receive a wireless signal to and from at least one of abase station, an external terminal, or a server on a mobilecommunication network. The wireless Internet module refers to a modulefor wireless Internet connection, and examples of the wireless Internettechnology may include wireless LAN (WLAN) (WiFi), wireless broadband(Wibro), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Wimax), andhigh-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). The short-range communicationmodule is for communicating within a short distance range. Some examplesof the short-range communication technology are Bluetooth, radiofrequency identification (RFID), infrared data association (IrDA), ultrawideband (UWB), and ZigBee.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the memory 14 may includeat least one of flash memory, a hard disk, a multimedia card micro,card-type memory (e.g., SD or XD memory), random access memory (RAM),static random access memory (SRAM), read-only memory (ROM), electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), magnetic memory, a magnetic disc, or an optical disc.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the memory 14 may store aplurality of applications. The plurality of applications stored in thememory 14 may be selected and executed according to a user input.According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the memory 14 may storethe plurality of applications, and the plurality of applications may beloaded into the processor 13 to be executed.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the processor 13 maycontrol an overall operation of the display device 10. For example, theprocessor 13 may control the memory 14 to load or store necessaryinformation.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the processor 13 mayexecute instructions stored in the memory 14 to execute a contentsharing application. Various modules mentioned in various embodiments ofthe disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the speech recognitionmodule 15 may perform the speech recognition function based on the soundinput signal received from the electronic device 100 c. The speechrecognition module 15 may include the sound signal processing module 16.In a case where the sound signal processing module 16 has received thefirst sound input signal and the second sound input signal from theelectronic device 100 c according to the long-range speech recognitionfunction, the sound signal processing module 16 may mix the first soundinput signal with the second sound input signal or may perform denoisingfilter processing. The speech recognition module 15 may be implementedby hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. In acase where the sound signal processing module 16 has received the secondsound input signal from the electronic device 100 c according to theshort-range speech recognition function, the sound signal processingmodule 16 may perform the denoising filter processing on the secondsound input signal. The denoising filter processing performed on thesound input signal for the long-range speech recognition may beimplemented differently from the denoising filter processing performedon the sound input signal for the short-range speech recognition.

FIG. 8 illustrates another example of an electronic device according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 8 , a system to which an electronic device 100 daccording to another embodiment of the disclosure is applied is the sameas the system illustrated in FIG. 7 . However, unlike the electronicdevice 100 c, the electronic device 100 d may further include a flaginserting unit 170.

Because the electronic device 100 d illustrated in FIG. 8 does notinclude the sound signal processor, the first sound input signal and thesecond sound input signal received according to the recognition of thetrigger word or phrase may be transmitted directly to the display device10 without the sound signal processing, or the second sound input signalmay be transmitted directly to the display device 10 according to thekey input signal. In this case, the first sound input signal and thesecond sound input signal transmitted according to the recognition ofthe trigger word or phrase may need to be mixed into a single signal inthe display device 10. Alternatively, the first sound input signal andthe second sound input signal transferred according to the recognitionof the trigger word or phrase may need to undergo denoising filterprocessing that is different from the denoising filter processingperformed on the second sound input signal transferred according to thekey input signal. To this end, it may be preferable to add flaginformation for the display device to determine whether the sound signaltransmitted from the electronic device to the display device is for thelong-range speech recognition according to the recognition of thetrigger word or phrase, or is for the short-distance speech recognitionaccording to the key input signal. Accordingly, the electronic device100 d illustrated in FIG. 8 may further include the flag inserting unit170 for adding the flag information.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the trigger word/phraserecognizer 121, which has received the sound input signal from the firstsound receiver 111 to which the power is supplied in the standby state,may determine whether the received sound input signal corresponds to thetrigger word or phrase, and may transmit the trigger word recognitionsignal to the power controller 130 and the flag inserting unit 170, in acase where the received sound input signal has been determined ascorresponding to the trigger word or phrase. The power controller 130that has received the trigger word recognition signal may control thepower to be supplied to the second sound receiver 112 such that thesecond sound receiver 112 may receive the sound input. The flaginserting unit 170 may receive the first sound input signal received bythe first sound receiver 111 and the second sound input signal receivedby the second sound receiver 112, insert flags indicating a signalaccording to the recognition of the trigger word or phrase, into thesignals, before transmitting the signals to the data transceiver 140,and transmit the signals into which the flags are inserted, to the datatransceiver 140. The sound signal processing module 16 of the displaydevice 10, that has received the signals into which the flags areinserted, may obtain the flags by parsing the received signals, toconfirm that the received first sound input signal and second soundinput signal are for the long-range speech recognition according to theflags, and accordingly, perform mixing or the denoising filterprocessing suitable for the long-range speech recognition on the firstsound input signal and the second sound input signal.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, in a case where the userinput unit 160 has received a key input, the user input interface 150may transmit the key input signal to the power controller 130 and mayalso transmit the key input signal to the flag inserting unit 170. Thepower controller 130 that has received the key input signal may controlthe power to be supplied to the second sound receiver 112 such that thesecond sound receiver 112 may receive the sound input. The second soundinput signal received by the second sound receiver 112 may betransmitted to the flag inserting unit 170, and the flag inserting unit170 may insert a flag indicating a signal for the short-range speechrecognition into the second sound input signal, based on the key inputsignal received from the user input unit 160, and may transmit thesignal into which the flag is inserted, to the data transceiver 140. Thesound signal processing module 16 of the display device 10 that hasreceived the signal into which the flag is inserted, may obtain the flagby parsing the received signal, and may perform the denoising filterprocessing suitable for the short-range speech recognition according tothe flag.

In the above description, a method of inserting flags separately intothe sound input signals sent according to the recognition of the triggerword or phrase, and the sound input signal sent according to the keyinput signal has been described, but the embodiments of the disclosureare not limited thereto. A flag capable of distinguishing a signal sentfor the long-range speech recognition from a signal sent for theshort-range speech recognition may be sufficient.

In order to distinguish the signal sent for the long-range speechrecognition from the signal sent for the short-range speech recognition,for example, a method of inserting a flag into the first sound inputsignal may be considered. In the example described above, because thefirst sound input signal and the second sound input signal may betransmitted together according to the recognition of the trigger word orphrase, while the second sound input signal may be solely transmittedaccording to the key input signal, in a case where the flag is insertedonly into the first sound input signal, the display device 10 maydetermine that the sound processing according to the long-range speechrecognition is required with reference to the flag inserted into thefirst sound input signal.

Some embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented as acomputer-readable recording medium, e.g., a program module to beexecuted in computers, which includes computer-readable instructions.The computer-readable recording medium may be any available medium whichis accessible by a computer, and may include a volatile or non-volatilemedium and a detachable or non-detachable medium. The computer-readablerecording medium may also include a computer storage medium. Thecomputer storage medium includes both volatile and non-volatile,detachable or non-detachable media implemented using any method ortechnique for storing information such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data.

The embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented in a software (S/W)program including instructions stored in a computer-readable storagemedium.

The computer may be a device capable of calling the stored instructionsfrom the storage medium and operating according to the embodimentsdisclosed herein, based on the called instructions, and may include anelectronic device according to the embodiments of the disclosure.

The computer-readable storage medium may be provided in the form of anon-transitory storage medium. Here, the term “non-transitory” simplymeans that the storage medium is tangible and does not refer to atransitory electrical signal, but does not distinguish that data isstored semi-permanently or temporarily in the storage medium.

Control methods according to the embodiments disclosed herein may beprovided in computer program products. The computer program products maybe traded as commodities between sellers and buyers.

The computer program products may include S/W programs orcomputer-readable storage media storing the S/W programs. For example,the computer program products may include S/W program-type products(e.g., downloadable applications) that are electronically distributedthrough manufacturers of electronic devices or electronic markets (e.g.,Google™ Play Store or App Store). For electronic distribution, at leasta part of the S/W programs may be stored in storage media or may betemporarily generated. In this case, the storage media may be storagemedia of servers of manufacturers, servers of electronic markets, orrelay servers that temporarily store the S/W programs.

The computer program product may include a storage medium of a server ora storage medium of an electronic device in a system which includes theserver and the electronic device. Alternatively, when there is a thirddevice (for example, a smart phone) that communicates with the server orthe electronic device, the computer program product may include astorage medium of the third device. Alternatively, the computer programproduct may include an S/W program itself that is transmitted from theserver to the electronic device or the third device, or transmitted fromthe third device to the electronic device.

In this case, one of the server, the electronic device, and the thirddevice may perform the method according to the disclosed embodiments byexecuting the computer program product. Alternatively, two or more ofthe server, the electronic device, and the third device may perform themethod according to the disclosed embodiments in a distributed manner byexecuting the computer program product.

For example, the server (for example, a cloud server, an artificialintelligence server, or the like) may execute the computer programproduct stored in the server, thereby controlling the electronic deviceto perform the method according to the disclosed embodiments, theelectronic device communicating with the server.

In another example, the third device may execute the computer programproduct, thereby controlling the electronic device to perform the methodaccording to the disclosed embodiments, the electronic devicecommunicating with the third device. When the third device executes thecomputer program product, the third device may download the computerprogram product from the server, and may execute the downloaded computerprogram product. Alternatively, the third device may perform the methodaccording to the disclosed embodiments by executing a pre-loadedcomputer program product.

In addition, in the specification, the term “unit” may be a hardwarecomponent such as a processor or a circuit, and/or a software componentexecuted by a hardware component such as a processor.

According to various embodiments of the disclosure, in an electronicdevice having a speech recognition function, some elements performingthe speech recognition function may operate by supplying power theretowhen a trigger word or phrase has been recognized, such that allelements performing the speech recognition function do not need to besupplied with the power all the time, and thus power consumption may bereduced.

While the embodiments of the disclosure have been particularly shown anddescribed, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the artthat various changes in form and details may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Hence, it shouldbe understood that the embodiments of the disclosure described above arenot limiting of the scope of the disclosure. For example, each elementdescribed in a single type may be executed in a distributed manner, andelements described distributed may also be executed in an integratedform.

The scope of the disclosure is not defined by the detailed descriptionof the disclosure but by the following claims, and all modifications oralternatives derived from the scope and spirit of the claims andequivalents thereof fall within the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device comprising: a first soundreceiver configured to receive a first sound input while power issupplied to the first sound receiver in a standby state of theelectronic device; a trigger word/phrase recognizer configured torecognize whether the first sound input received by the first soundreceiver corresponds to a trigger word or phrase; a second soundreceiver configured to receive a second sound input by receiving supplyof power based on the trigger word or phrase being recognized by thetrigger word/phrase recognizer; a sound signal processor configured toremain in a power-off state in the standby state of the electronicdevice, and based on the trigger word or phrase being recognized by thetrigger word/phrase recognizer, change the power-off state to a power-onstate for receiving the power, receive a first sound input signalcorresponding to the first sound input from the first sound receiver anda second sound input signal corresponding to the second sound input fromthe second sound receiver, and process the first sound input signal andthe second sound input signal; and a data transceiver configured tooutput the first sound input signal and the second sound input signal.2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a powercontroller configured to control the power to be supplied to the secondsound receiver based on a control signal indicating the recognizing ofthe trigger word or phrase being received from the trigger word/phraserecognizer.
 3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the soundsignal processor is further configured to generate a stereo signal bymixing the first sound input signal with the second sound input signal.4. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the power controller isfurther configured to, based on a key input signal for requesting aspeech recognition function being received, supply the power to thesecond sound receiver, and cease power supply to the first soundreceiver, and the data transceiver is further configured to receive thesecond sound input signal from the second sound receiver operating andoutput the received second sound input signal.
 5. The electronic deviceof claim 4, wherein the power controller is further configured tocontrol cease power supply to the second sound receiver based on thespeech recognition function being terminated.
 6. An electronic devicecomprising: a first sound receiver configured to receive a sound inputwhile power is supplied to the first sound receiver in a standby stateof the electronic device; a trigger word/phrase recognizer configured torecognize whether the sound input received by the first sound receivercorresponds to a trigger word or phrase; a second sound receiverconfigured to receive a sound input by receiving supply of power basedon the trigger word or phrase being recognized by the triggerword/phrase recognizer; a data transceiver configured to output a firstsound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and a secondsound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver; and a flaginserting unit configured to insert, into the second sound input signaloutput in response to a key input signal for requesting a speechrecognition function, a flag for distinguishing the second sound inputsignal output in response to the key input signal from the first soundinput signal output in response to the recognizing of the trigger wordor phrase.
 7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein, based on theflag, the second sound input signal output in response to the key inputsignal is subjected to sound processing that is different from soundprocessing to be performed on the first sound input signal output inresponse to the recognizing of the trigger word or phrase.
 8. Theelectronic device of claim 4, further comprising a switch connected tothe second sound receiver, wherein the switch is configured to transmit,based on the key input signal requesting the speech recognition functionbeing received, the second sound input signal supplied from the secondsound receiver to the data transceiver, or transmit, based on therecognizing of the trigger word or phrase, the second sound input signalto the sound signal processor configured to process the second soundinput signal with the first sound input signal.
 9. An operation methodof an electronic device, the operation method comprising: receiving afirst sound input, by a first sound receiver to which power is suppliedin a standby state of the electronic device; recognizing whether thefirst sound input received by the first sound receiver corresponds to atrigger word or phrase; receiving a second sound input by a second soundreceiver to which the power is supplied based on the trigger word orphrase being recognized; based on the trigger word or phrase beingrecognized, changing a power-off state of a sound signal processor to apower-on state, receiving, by the sound signal processor in the power-onstate, a first sound input signal corresponding to the first sound inputfrom the first sound receiver and a second sound input signalcorresponding to the second sound input from the second sound receiver,and processing, by the sound signal processor in the power-on state, thefirst sound input signal and the second sound input signal, wherein thesound signal processor remains in the power-off state in the standbystate of the electronic device, and the sound signal processor issupplied with the power in the power-on state; and outputting, by a datatransceiver, the first sound input signal and the second sound inputsignal.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising controlling, by apower controller, the power to be supplied to the second sound receiverbased on a control signal indicating the recognizing of the trigger wordor phrase being received.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprisinggenerating, by the sound signal processor, a stereo signal by mixing thefirst sound input signal with the second sound input signal.
 12. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising: supplying, by the powercontroller, based on a key input signal for requesting a speechrecognition function being received, the power to the second soundreceiver, and ceasing, by the power controller, power supply to thefirst sound receiver, and receiving, by the data transceiver, the secondsound input signal from the second sound receiver operating based on thepower being supplied, and outputting, by the data transceiver, thereceived second sound input signal.
 13. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising ceasing power supply to the second sound receiver based onthe speech recognition function being terminated.
 14. An operationmethod of an electronic device, the operation method comprising:receiving a sound input, by a first sound receiver to which power issupplied in a standby state of the electronic device; recognizingwhether the sound input received by the first sound receiver correspondsto a trigger word or phrase; receiving a sound input by a second soundreceiver to which the power is supplied based on the trigger word orphrase being recognized; outputting, by a data transceiver, a firstsound input signal supplied from the first sound receiver and a secondsound input signal supplied from the second sound receiver; andinserting into the second sound input signal output in response to a keyinput signal for requesting a speech recognition function beingreceived, a flag for distinguishing the second sound input signal outputin response to the key input signal from the first sound input signaloutput in response to the recognizing of the trigger word or phrase. 15.The method of claim 14, further comprising, based on the flag,performing, on the second sound input signal output in response to thekey input signal, sound processing that is different from soundprocessing to be performed on the first sound input signal output inresponse to the recognition of the trigger word or phrase.
 16. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising transmitting, by a switch, basedon the key input signal requesting the speech recognition function beingreceived, the second sound input signal supplied from the second soundreceiver to the data transceiver, or transmitting, based on therecognizing of the trigger word or phrase, the second sound input signalto the sound signal processor configured to process the second soundinput signal with the first sound input signal.
 17. A computer readablerecording medium comprising a program executing an operation method ofan electronic device, the operation method comprises: receiving a firstsound input, by a first sound receiver to which power is supplied in astandby state of the electronic device; recognizing whether the firstsound input received by the first sound receiver corresponds to atrigger word or phrase; receiving a second sound input by a second soundreceiver to which the power is supplied based on the trigger word orphrase being recognized; based on the trigger word or phrase beingrecognized, changing a power-off state of a sound signal processor to apower-on state, receiving, by the sound signal processor in the power-onstate, a first sound input signal corresponding to the first sound inputfrom the first sound receiver and a second sound input signalcorresponding to the second sound input from the second sound receiver,and processing, by the sound signal processor in the power-on state, thefirst sound input signal and the second sound input signal, wherein thesound signal processor remains in the power-off state in the standbystate of the electronic device, and the sound signal processor issupplied with the power in the power-on state; and outputting, by a datatransceiver, the first sound input signal and the second sound inputsignal.